Plagiarism

After all the conjecture about Plagiarism I thought I would share some of the Basic Facts about plagiarism.

Plagiarism is:

1. to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
2. to use (another's production) without crediting the source
3. to commit literary theft
4. to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward. ("Meriam-Webster online dictionary")
But can words and ideas really be stolen?

According to U.S. law, the answer is yes. The expression of original ideas is considered intellectual property, and is protected by copyright laws, just like original inventions. Almost all forms of expression fall under copyright protection as long as they are recorded in some way (such as a book or a computer file).
All of the following are considered plagiarism:

• turning in someone else's work as your own
• copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
• failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
• giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
• changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
• copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not.

Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources. Simply acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed, and providing your audience with the information necessary to find that source, is usually enough to prevent plagiarism. ("Plagiarism.Org")

If you are really worried then you can protect yourself in the following way.

Draw a C inside a circle (international copyright symbol) on all your work also write the year and all rights reserved this gives you ownership of the copy rights.

In the recent case on this site it is clear that there was no intent to defraud and therefore no plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a serious criminal offence which can lead to expulsion from tertiary facilities with all credits being wiped to jail time depending on the severity.

Its easily avoided by citing the work you are quoting from or using quotation marks.

I hope this sheds some light on a dark situation.

Regards

Click:talker:

don't forget to credit the source of the text for this post!